


Naked

by PsychedelicatePoltergeist



Series: Lessons In Strength, Friendship and Love [18]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Introspection, M/M, POV First Person, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 07:25:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16970307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychedelicatePoltergeist/pseuds/PsychedelicatePoltergeist
Summary: There was one guy whose walls were built on shaky foundation, and right from the get-go I saw right through his bravado and sense of confidence.





	Naked

**Author's Note:**

> The end result of me getting a strong spark of inspiration at 2am and desperately needing to write something down. Tweaked it some today, and I think it's good enough to post.

I've always kept my guard up, never failing to prevent the fall of the walls I'd meticulously built over the years. I never got close to anyone outside the clan if I could help it, and if anyone bothered trying to enter my world and let my guard down, I pushed them away with language so colourful that a sailor would blush. That's the guy I had to be – the tough, no-nonsense yakuza who'd kill anyone who dared to fuck with him. It was better that way – it meant that I could just focus on what was important, like good grades and impressing the clan's elders, not stupid shit like goofing off with immature morons going through puberty.

But I'm not the dangerous, incredibly strong yakuza I appear to be. Not really. In reality, I'm a fucking coward, a disgrace to the Kuzuryuu Clan, a loser who really doesn't know his place in the world, or who he wants to be.

I had no choice but to strengthen my walls once I was tossed into a killing game. Anyone who spent his time being obviously panicked or scared of the situation was a prime target in this game, and I had to make sure that no one had the balls to try killing me. 'Sides, even if they did, I could always incapacitate them, probably even kill 'em if I wanted to leave everyone else to die and “graduate* on my own.

Except... I couldn't. I couldn't do that. There's someone precious to me, someone who means so much to me that letting her die was roughly equivalent to castration.

And yet, I lost her anyway, and it was all my fault. And it wasn't until she died, wasn't until I realised how much of an ass I was being, that my walls finally began to crumble, and my true self began to emerge.

That killing game, in hindsight, knocked down many walls that we had built around us to hide our deepest secrets and insecurities – things we thought could've painted a target on our backs. But there was one guy whose walls were built on shaky foundation, and right from the get-go I saw right through his bravado and sense of confidence.

Kazuichi didn't live a life quite like I did. He didn't have elders demanding toughness and bravery from him as they pointed a gun to his head. 'Sides, his cowardice is in his nature at this point, imprinted into his being by the assholes who made his life miserable, Everyone knows his true nature. Everyone knows how scared he really is, how shy he really is around girls. Once they've seen something, you can't make 'em forget it by shoving it under the rug – and Kazuichi always shifts the damn rug so that his true colours poke out, no matter how many times he tries to hide them again.

It's kinda interesting how easily I fell for the guy he was so desperately trying, but failing, to hide, once all that killing game and despair bullshit was over and done with at least. He's annoying, and I'm always the one who has to get him out of trouble, but despite all my grumbling about it, I really don't mind. I always thought he looked a million times better with his natural hair and eye colour, though I could tolerate him dressing like a freakshow. So what if he's a wimp? So what if he's annoying as hell? He's Kazuichi, the  _ true  _ Kazuichi, and I ain't gonna fuck around loving his shadow like he used to love Sonia's.

What was a little more difficult to accept, though, was that Kazuichi has the same feelings about me. Ever since we started dating, he'd occasionally reminded me that I don't need to be an ice king or anything like that around him. He knows I'm hurting, he knows how I really feel about Peko's death and Ultimate Despair and all the bullshit that turned my life upside down.

He knows I have a deep, seething hatred for the real me, because he feels the same way about himself.

As they say, it takes two to tango, and it took the both of us to drop the bullshit and bare ourselves to one another to truly love and appreciate each other. We, the men who shied away behind masks, let them fall so that we could have a glimpse at who we really are and how we really feel, deep inside. And y'know, we both came out stronger, in the end, being honest with ourselves and each other about our insecurities and true colours. As long as we have each other, we can do anything - and I'm really fucking grateful for that.


End file.
